Sacramento light rail station approved outside public housing complex after board reverses vote

Theresa Clift
·2 min read
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A group of Sacramento region leaders have approved a new light rail station outside a large River District public housing complex, reversing a previous denial.

County Supervisors Patrick Kennedy and Pat Hume, as well as Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen, Rancho Cordova Mayor Linda Budge and Folsom Councilman Mike Kozlowski, voted against the station in November, but changed their votes in Monday’s Sacramento Regional Transit board meeting.

Several board members who flipped their votes said it was due to new information shared by staff.

“While the process may have been messy, we are in a better place,” Singh-Allen said during Monday’s meeting.

Since the original vote, the California Strategic Growth Council sent Regional Transit a letter determining that its grant funds can only be used for permanent structures, not adding new bus routes, which the board had voted in November to do as an alternative to the station, said Laura Ham, RT’s vice president of planning and engineering.

In addition, RT secured $10 million in Senate Bill 125 funding in December from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Ham said. The project total will be about $42 million, which is about $1 million less than the estimate in November, and will include about $33 million in grant funding from various state and federal sources.

State Sen. Angelique Ashby, D-Sacramento, has committed to advocate for the project on future grant solicitations, Ham said.

Citrus Heights Mayor Bret Daniels was the only board member to vote against the station, citing concerns that it was too much money to spend on a project that will not benefit suburban residents.

“It’s a terrible slap in the face to taxpayers, I think,” Daniels said. “It’s also a slap in the face to what this board is, as far as a Sacramento Regional Transit District.”

Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Authority officials have been advocating for the station, saying it was always supposed to be added to the newly finished Mirasol Village, which includes 487 mixed-income units. Several residents of the public housing complex have told the board the existing bus stop, a 15-minute walk, is too far.